There exists a great deal of literature relating to the localization and navigation of mobile robots in indoor and outdoor environments. Examples of such literature include the following references, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference:
E. W. Kent et al, Real-Time Cooperative Interaction between Structured-Light and Reflectance Ranging for Robot Guidance, Robotica, Vol. 3, Nov 1, pp. 7-11, 1985;
G. L. Miller et al, An Optical Rangefinder for Autonomous Robot Cart Navigation, SPIE Mobile Robots II, Vol. 852, pp. 132-144, 1987.
N. S. V. Rao et al, On Terrain Model Acquisition by a Point Robot Amidst Polyhedral Obstacles, IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 450-455, August, 1988;
T. Nakamura, Edge Distribution Understanding For Locating a Mobile Robot, SPIE Mobile Robots III, Vol. 1007, pp 195-202, 1988;
E. Y. Rodin et al, Intelligent Navigation for an Autonomous Mobile Robot, Proc. of the 28th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Ft. Lauderdale, pp. 366-369, December, 1989; T. Ochi, A Positioning System for Mobile Robots Using Symmetrical Rotating Laser Beams, Advanced Robotics, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 217-220, 1990;
C. L. Shih, et al, A Unified Approach for Robot Motion Planning with Moving Polyhedral Obstacles, IEEE Trans on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Vol. 20, No. 4, July/August 1990;
J. J. Leonard et al, Mobile Robot Localization by Tracking Geometric Beacons, IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 7, No. 3, June, 1991.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,128 Automated Vehicle Guidance System;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,172 Optical Ranging System Using Phase Shift Measurements;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,441 Range Finder for e.g. Automatic Guided Vehicle.